


A Chilling Rain

by meronichan



Category: Thunderbolt Fantasy 東離劍遊紀 (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 16:22:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13528035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meronichan/pseuds/meronichan
Summary: Lin Xue Ya and Shang Bu Huan take a brief respite from travelling due to impending bad weather. But this break is about to turn into a whole heap of trouble!





	A Chilling Rain

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any of these characters or the series "Thunderbolt Fantasy". This is a multi-part fic, more to come soon.

That day had been nothing but a blanket of gray. Even if you had looked for miles, the only thing you would have seen would have been a bleak landscape, dotted with tiny villages and rice fields. The clouds were so pregnant with rain that at any moment it seemed they would burst. It was Spring now, so these things were not unexpected. But for those on the road, they weren't entirely welcome.

  
Shang Bu Huan opened his umbrella as he walked, sensing the incoming storm. The only scent besides the damp that he could smell was the thick cloud of smoke filling the air around his traveling companion, Lin Xue Ya. When Lin saw what Shang was doing, he instinctively moved closer. The umbrella was only big enough for one, but that didn't stop him from trying to shield himself. After all, it was his present. It was his thinking that would prevent even some of the rain from soaking them through. Shang seemed unappreciative of the gift, but Xue Ya thought that was natural. He would realize the value soon enough.

  
"We've been traveling since dawn, I think we have some time to rest before the rain begins," remarked Lin. Shang stopped and looked to him, simply nodding in agreement. He was tired, he had to admit that. He wasn't the same spry youth he used to be, and the moist air especially made his bones ache. He was hungry too, and the thought of the smoked meat in his satchel sounded appealing to him, even if Xue Ya would turn his nose up at it.

  
Lin pointed his pipe towards a clearing off the road. Upon closer inspection, Shang noticed that it seemed to be a campsite for people who frequently traveled this path.  


  
Shang was always leery of situations like that. It would be painfully easy for bandits to jump them when they were off their guard. In an enclosed space, there would be nowhere to run, either. It was just far enough into the forest that even passersby might miss them, should they need someone to alert the nearby villagers.

  
Lin seemed to sense Shang's hesitation, so he spoke: "I've traveled this road many times in the past. The people near here are poor, and many soldiers have been patrolling these areas for some time. The only ones who use this path nowadays are rogue warriors and monks. There isn't much incentive for vagrants to camp."

  
Lin took another puff on his pipe as Shang made his way off the beaten path into the meadow. He gave the sky one more quick glance, and closed his umbrella. He assumed the nearby trees would be adequate protection from a small drizzle. Perhaps they would be fortunate and the clouds would move on.

  
In the area, Shang noticed a long, thin log, just large enough for two people to sit. Though he still found it uncomfortable to share such spaces with Lin Xue Ya, he felt he really had no choice. With his seemingly endless supply of wealth, Xue Ya provided the lodging and nourishment Shang desperately needed. Without it, he would have to go back to hunting for squirrels and sleeping on moss. In some ways that seemed the better option for Shang, but the comforts denied him for so long were very difficult to turn away now.

  
"Not forever," he would always tell himself, to justify it. "Just until this is over."

  
For Lin Xue Ya, though, there was always a choice. And now he was choosing to sit and have a bite to eat with the man he'd chosen to accompany on his journeys. How long that would be, he couldn't say. But as of that moment, the concept of years did not seem entirely unwelcome. Though Shang was a brute, with nothing in the way of class or manners, he found the warrior's unfaltering loyalty to mankind endearing in a foolhardy way. He would always be someone's plaything.

The notion, however, began curdling something in Lin's soul, just a bit.  
"I don't believe I would enjoy someone else making a fool of you," Lin thought, as Shang removed a dry hunk of boar meat from his satchel and began to indulge. "To kick someone's else's faithful dog is unforgivable."

  
Shang raised his eyebrow, as if he knew what Lin was thinking, which of course he did not. It seemed that any prolonged pause between them was a cause for alarm. To be polite, he held out a piece of jerky to Lin, who put up his hand to deny Shang's kindness.

  
"Many thanks, but no. I may not seem like it, but I have quite a bit of stamina. The rice we had for breakfast should be more than enough until we reach the inn. And besides,..."

"...you 'find the taste of boar unpalatable,'" Shang interjected. Evidently they had many conversations similar to this one in the past. Lin smiled at being so openly mocked, which he found amusing more so than irritating.

"So you do listen to me. I had wondered if your ears were so clogged with notions of righteousness such simple things escape you."

  
Lin bit the end of his pipe as Shang gave him a dirty glance, shoving the rest of his lunch into his mouth and crossing his arms. Lin took another heavy breath, letting the smoke fill his lungs and exhaling uncomfortably close to Shang. He heard Shang grumble as he closed his eyes contentedly, enjoying the feeling of the cool breeze on his face. Despite the colorless sky and the sour mood of his companion, Lin's world, for the moment, felt as if it were surrounded by color.

  
"After these next few villages, we should be close to the Wasteland," Shang said, after a few minutes of silence. He looked to Lin with a serious expression. "I need to know if I can count on you for what's ahead."

  
Lin opened one eye to Shang. "Of course. I came this far, haven't I? Why would I ever back away now?"

  
A new voice cut through the voices of the two men:

"I'm afraid neither one of you will be making it there."

  
Both Lin and Shang sprung to their feet; Shang's hand immediately going to his sword, and Lin's hold on his pipe became even tighter.  
Out of the forest before them stepped the figure of a woman dressed in black. She was barely visible in the overcast, but her long trailing sleeves and the horns protruding from her head were unmistakable.

  
"Xing Hai!" exclaimed both Lin and Shang in unison.

  
This seemed to amuse her, as the demon put her palm to her mouth and laughed derisively.  
"Haha! So both of you fools remember me! I'm flattered. Although it seems you weren't expecting to see me again."

  
Neither Lin nor Shang could answer that remark. Truly they had not expected to hear from her again. She was a reclusive being to begin with, and Shang had assumed she'd merely gone back into hiding. Lin was certain Bones of Creation had done away with her. At least, that's what he'd hoped,...

  
"That's precisely what I hate about human males!" she bellowed. "The sheer arrogance of your race never ceases to astound me!" Xing Hai reached to her belt to retrieve her whip. "No matter,...that ignorance is what has spelled your doom. All the better for me."

  
Lin snorted and put his pipe back in his mouth, clearly signaling that he didn't see her as much of a threat. "And do you really propose to take us both on at once? Surely you're not that daft."

  
Xing Hai's eyes narrowed at Xue Ya. If looks could kill, Shang swore she would have shot venom into his veins on the spot.  
"Of course not. I won't be alone this time. I have a few friends that I would like both of you to meet."

  
Xing Hai raised her whip above her head, still eyeing Lin. She brought it down in his direction as if she intended to hit him. Instead, the whip cracked the ground with such intensity that both Lin and Shang were thrown backwards. As both men made an effort to regain their footing, the earth beneath them began to shake violently. The trees surrounding them cracked as they fell, and the birds and animals scurried in an attempt to flee the area.

  
"Earthquake?!" Lin heard Shang shout. And it did seem to be one, if not for the fact that the ground was beginning to crack down the middle!

  
The sound of Xing Hai's laughter rose above the chaos, as the landscape around them fell into the ravine which had been created from the separation. At the bottom both Lin and Shang could clearly see what seemed to be a different world entirely. Despite that neither one had actually been there or heard what it was like, they instantly recalled the look and feel of the Demon Spine Mountains where they had faced Bones of Creation only a few months before, and knew the place they were about to be sent was the realm of demons.

  
"I'll be damned if I'm going there!" Shang yelled, pulling out his false sword. He thought that if he attacked Xing Hai, perhaps he could stop her from dragging them both down with her. Lin appeared to share a similar idea, as his pipe had already transformed into his own thin sword, which was aimed at the demon as well.

  
Neither had time enough to act on their instincts unfortunately, as the gravity of the demon realm was working on them too quickly. It pulled at them with invisible arms, making any effort they put into trying to draw themselves out fruitless.

  
Suddenly, they could feel themselves falling. In this instance there was really nothing either one could do. They were descending for what looked like miles down, and they were prepared to crash into the ground to their inevitable deaths. Both scanned the horizon frantically as they dropped, as if they could spy some way to escape, finding none. They looked at each other, and then for Xing Hai, who was nowhere in sight.

  
When Shang was about to open his mouth to both curse Lin and wish him an unfond farewell, the men slammed into the back of a demon bird with an abrupt thud! Taking a moment to compose themselves, they began to realize what was happening. The bird they were currently sitting on was similar to the ones in the Demon Spine Mountains, however it was twice as large, big enough to easily carry both of them to where Xing Hai evidently intended them to go.

  
"So,..this must be how she survived too," Shang commented, throwing Lin a look not very dissimilar to the one Xing Hai had given him. "She's almost as crafty as you, and half as demonic!"

"Do you really think this is the proper time to be giving me a lecture?" Lin snipped. It seemed that even his usual veneer of benign indifference was cracking under the severity of their unusual circumstance.

  
Both men held onto their swords and the bird for dear life as it flew through the sky , the look of which appeared like the embers of a dying fire. It moved much more quickly than something of its size could possibly have in the other realm, especially with the heaviness of this world's gravity bearing down on it. Both men were feeling it now, the force so strong that it was a struggle even to keep their eyelids open.

"And I suppose we'll be greeted by her army of demons when we land," Lin said, shaking his head. "Really, must she be so troublesome?"

  
"And it would be only half of what you deserve!" Shang shouted, to which Lin could only sigh in response.

  
As if on cue, the bird halted in midair, nearly throwing Shang and Lin off in the process. It's great bony wings hovered in place as its massive legs came out for the descent. Upon reaching its destination, the bird let out an ear-piercing wail, shaking both men from its back and immediately returning to the skies.

  
The ground they'd landed on was hard and dusty, as dry as the inside of a dormant volcano. Surrounding them were massive mountains, some twisted as if a great man had folded them into an unnatural shape. Even the air was barely breathable; each inhale felt like their lungs were pierced by thousands of tiny needles. No longer high above the ground, both now experienced the immense gravity even more strongly, which nearly bolted them to the floor.

  
Lin, being the lighter of the two, struggled to his feet first, offering Shang his help to stand. Once both were vertical, Lin examined the landscape more closely, expecting to see his imagined demon army appear from the shadow of the mountains any moment.

  
But nothing came. The only sound they could hear was the caw of demon birds flying high above them, and a cold wind blowing hauntingly through the valley.


End file.
